Monday, May 10, 2010

US Mint Catching Up with Gold Offerings

In a short time frame, the United States Mint has caught up with many of their delayed 2010 gold offerings. This is encouraging news for collectors who are hoping that the Mint will issue collectible versions of the 2010 American Gold Eagle.

The collectible offerings had been canceled for 2009 Gold Eagle. By law, the US Mint is required to produce the bullion versions of the coin in quantities sufficient to meet public demand. Since full demand was not being met, the Mint allocated all available 22 karat gold blanks to the bullion coins and did not produce the collector versions, which are not legally mandated.

This year started on a low note, when the US Mint delayed the release of the one ounce 2010 Gold Eagle bullion coins. Usually, bullion coins bearing the following year's date can be ordered by authorized purchasers in December of the prior year for delivery in early January. This year, orders were not accepted until January 19, 2010. Initial demand for Gold and Silver Eagles was heavy and seemed to foretell a repeat of last year.

The first encouraging sign came in March 2010, when the US Mint ended the allocation program for American Gold Eagle bullion coins. This program rationed the number of available gold bullion coins amongst the authorized purchasers. With unrestricted ordering, it was a signal that the US Mint was able to meet full demand for one ounce Gold Eagle bullion coins.

In the following month, the Mint began accepting orders from authorized purchasers for bullion version of the 2010 Gold Buffalo coins on April 29, 2010. This initial offering date was more than five months ahead of the prior year, when coins were not available until October 15.

In recent news, the availability date for the 2010 Proof Gold Buffalo has now been announced as June 3, 2010. This is once again more than five months ahead of the sales start date for last year's coin, which was October 29. Since this is a collector coin, it will be available directly from the US Mint.

Additionally, Numismatic News reported that the Mint has begun striking fractional Gold Eagle bullion coins, although a sales start date is still unknown. Last year, the fractional weight gold bullion coins were not offered until December 3.

With the US Mint is now running several months ahead of last year's release schedule, all gold bullion products released or soon to be released, and gold bullion no longer subject to rationing, it seems more likely that collectible versions of the American Gold Eagle will be issued this year.

The Mint could always "re-evaluate" the analysis that led to the demise of the fractional Buffalos. As Michael pointed out in an article a while back, the death of the fractional Buffalos was just a series of unfortunate events that skewed the data the Mint based their decision on.

There is a possibility that the Mint will realize that discontinuing the collector fractional Buffalos was a mistake, and may bring them back in the future. It won't happen this year, but there's always next year or beyond. A lot of it will hinge on what happens to the gold price over that time, and investor demand for the bullion coins mandated by law.

Man, if the fractional Buffalos ever DO make a comeback, the sky's the limit for the value of the 2008 sets! Holy smokes! Those coins are so RARE, it's hard to take in. I've NEVER seen one for sale in person, only on the internet. I'm fortunate enough to own two Uncirculated 4-coin sets that I bought from the Mint for $1,902.45 each, right before the sellout. I recognized those back then for what they were: An incredible opportunity. I only wish I could have afforded to buy some Proof sets too at that time, but I chose the Uncirculateds since they were lower mintage. At any rate, I did okay.

I think there is a lot of hype getting into the 08-W buffaloes. There are also the 08-W fractionals, some of which have lower mintages with equivalent or larger collector bases. Or the reverse proof 2006 W AGE which is also a long term winner. I for one did very well with the humble 07/08 ASEs!

other country like australia. they can produce any coin and dated what you want. like the lunar series I. the last three years were made in the same year. why can the u.s. mint produce this year AGE proof and dated 2009 and 2010?.

To each his own they say. Folks with the necessary resources have made pretty solid investments in both collector and bullion gold pieces. But, it takes a substantial amount of funds to acquire a sizeable quantity of those lovely items.

I chose a different approach to private accumulation for the future of my children and grandchildren. Back in 2006, I had the good fortune to convert a once in a lifetime Casino slot machine win into ASE's. I had bought several 3 coin Anniversary sets from the Mint and upon examination found the Reverse Proof coin particularly absolutely stunning. Actually all 3 pieces as a group were, in my estimation, one of the top 5 sets ever produced by the Mint in recent times.

I decided to use that large slot machine win to buy additional 3 coin sets from the Mint direct while timing allowed, and single Reverse Proof pieces from dealers, coin shows, other collectors, and ebay for quite some time then and since.

My inventory shows 73 Anniversary sets, and 233 single Reverse Proofs. Call me crazy, but I think the young ones will benefit in the future from these silver items that I was able to acquire in quantity. Silver or Gold, which is best for the little people to hold? Time will tell. ~ Grandpa

I don't see what the point is in issuing coins this year that were not issued last year. Once you skip a year you lose a lot of collectors.

The mint needs to come up with some new coin designs and start fresh with new coin series, not issue coins in broken series that have already gone on for far too long. How many more gold American Eagle coins do we need? Isn't 25 years of them enough?

They really should make more fractionals, especially the 1/10 oz. The new healthcare law says every time you sell coins to a coin dealer he has to get your SS# and give you and the IRS a 1099 if it is over $600 (per year).

While it's not bad paying tax on a $100 profit if you sell a $500 item for $600, if you lost your receipt from when you bought it then you pay tax on the whole $600!

And if you bought something for $1200 and sell it for $1000, a loss, you pay tax on the $1000 if you lost your receipt!

Good thing the mint keeps record of all our orders for the last 10 years online!

For all those who thought gold would pop, we hit a new record today. PEOPLE, wake the hell up and realize that the world is throwing TRILLIONS, not billions of fiat currency into the world. This is only pushing the problem and only helps in the short term. Gold and I think particularly silver will benefit from this. How many of your friends or neighbors own gold, I would guess ZERO. Imagine if only 10% of US residents put 10% of their wealth into PS metals, what happen to the price. This is not a gold bug talking but someone that has been saying all along that this kind of monetary policy cannot continue.

I am not a gold bug either...just a realist who sees the present illusion of value in paper that is printed on an "as-needed" basis. Apparently, I'm not the only one based on what's happening with currencies and gold prices. Gold will never see $800 again; and perhaps $1K!

I could be mistaken but I think the gold prices reflect a "hedging of bets" in the investment community. The world economy is still in the doldrums. The recovery may take a few years but money in gold funds will eventually move over to other portfolios. Perhaps the lucky ones are those who purchased mounds of AGEs in 1986 and are cashing in now. I used to have a couple of 1986 Proof 1 Oz'ers but I sold them to help with the house down payment.

It will be interesting to see if higher prices begin to deter collectors. I remember thinking how steep the 2009 proof buffalos were at over $1300. Looks like the 2010s may be $1500. Gold is quickly beginning to become unaffordable to many former collectors.

Anybody who bought quantities of Gold Eagles in 2001 when gold was only $2xx/oz. could make a "paper" killing today. But with the state of the economy now, who would want to convert their gold to paper?

I guess they could sell off enough of it to recover the paper they spent on it back then, and if the price ever goes back down to those levels again they could re-invest it and increase their holdings even more.

About the price ever getting back down to $2xx/oz. again, hey, it could happen! Yeah! And monkeys might fly out of my butt!